Did you know that 83% of organizations reported at least one insider threat in 2023? An insider threat involves an individual who works for an organization and may have authorized access to a network or systems that compromise security. This can be current or former employees, consultants, contractors, or board members. You may think insider threats are mostly malicious or intentional. When in reality, most insider threats are non-malicious. In this article, we’ll go over the different types of insider threats, how businesses are affected, and how to combat non-malicious insider threats.
The Types of Insider Threats
While there are many types of insider threats, we’ll focus on the two most common ones.
Malicious: These threats are when people deliberately seek to harm an organization for any reason. Usually, for personal gain, revenge, or anything else they can profit from. An example of this was in 2006, when a Coke employee attempted to sell company secrets to Pepsi for $1.5 million.
Non-Malicious: This is when someone unintentionally comprises sensitive information or a system. Generally, because of negligence, carelessness, or lack of awareness. But these threats are done with no intent to harm the company. Something as simple as accidentally clicking a suspicious link could start a data breach, but it would be classified as non-malicious.
How Insider Threats Affect Businesses
Whether these threats are malicious or not, they can have devastating consequences for businesses. They can impact operations, reputation, and financial stability. Here’s how these threats affect businesses:
Financial Losses: Financial losses are one of the biggest ways businesses are impacted by insider threats. The average cost of an insider incident taking over 91 days to detect was around $18.33 million. These costs can include direct theft, recovery expenses, legal fees, or regulatory fines.
Data Breaches: This is possibly the biggest loss that can occur from an insider threat. Data breaches not only expose sensitive records from a business and its customers, but they can also damage its reputation and may cause it to go out of business. Over 68% of data breaches involved a non-malicious insider, this shows how these attacks usually aren’t intentional.
Business Continuity: An organization’s ability to continue operating without interruption is crucial in this digital age we live in. Downtime can be very costly for businesses, so having systems in place to ensure continuity is crucial. The average cost of downtime can be around $9000 per minute for large organizations, in some scenarios, even $5 million an hour.
Phishing Example
How To Combat Non-Malicious Insider Threats
Although non-malicious threats can happen to almost anyone, they are preventable. Here are ways companies can combat these threats:
Employee Training and Awareness: Training yourself and your employees will help your organization stay educated on best security practices and how to avoid common cyber-attacks such as malware or phishing. Also, making sure people are aware of their actions, helping stop themselves from doing things that could cause a potential breach. Such as clicking on any suspicious links or downloading random files.
Clear Policies and Procedures: Establishing clear policies and procedures can greatly reduce the chance of non-malicious insider threats. Including guidelines for password management, device usage, and data sharing are ways to prevent potential attacks. Ensuring employees understand the threat is important for compliance.
Partnering With a Managed IT and Cybersecurity Service: It’s widely considered that the best way to stop any potential cyber threat is to partner with a managed IT and cybersecurity service. It will save money on not having an in-house IT team, and you can find one with scalable solutions to meet business needs. These services reduce costs, give you access to cybersecurity expertise, and improve overall business security.
How Kirkham IronTech Stops Non-Malicious Insider Threats
We at Kirkham IronTech are a Top 250 MSSP with over 25 years of experience. Some of the services we offer are:
- Security Awareness Training
- Activity Monitoring
- Security Audits
- Incident Response Plans
- Email Monitoring
- Simulated Attacks
- And More
With those services and our IronTech Framework, we can ensure your business is protected from any cyberattack. Our clients have lower costs, increased ROI, increased efficiency, and sleep better at night. Protecting your business from cyber threats should be a top priority for any business in this digital age.
Give Us a Call and Learn How We Protect Businesses
Call Us: (479) 434-1400 – Speak with our cybersecurity experts.
Visit Our Website: www.kirkhamirontech.com – Learn about our services.
Email Us: info@kirkhamirontech.com – Let us help protect your business from insider threats.
Tom Kirkham brings more than three decades of software design, network administration, and cybersecurity knowledge to organizations around the country. During his career, Tom has received multiple software design awards and founded other acclaimed technology businesses.
